“You really hate to lose an accredited center when there are so few,” said Carol Shattuck, president and CEO of the Collaborative for Children, which will help families find other child care. “The number of high-quality centers in our community is limited.”

About 40 enrolled

UH Provost John Antel announced the closure to faculty members Wednesday, saying the school wasn’t a good fit with the research and training interests of faculty and graduate students at the College of Education.

Acknowledging that the school has many loyal parents, Antel said there were also financial and safety concerns. He declined to discuss the safety issues but said staff changes to address them will be made immediately.

The lab school closed temporarily last week to correct plumbing problems; Antel said it is losing about $100,000 a year.

About 40 children are currently enrolled, and their parents are set to meet with Education Dean Robert Wimpelberg tonight.

Some — noting that many preschools closed enrollment for the coming school year months ago — are worried they won’t find comparable care.

“We’re on a couple of waiting lists, but that’s all it is: a list,” said Marna Marsh, whose children, Wren, 4, and Asa, 2, attend the lab school. “We’ve got to keep our fingers crossed if the decision isn’t reversed.”

Limited care options

The lab school is open to the public, as well as to children of UH students and staff. A second child care center on campus may be expanded to make room for lab school students, Antel said.

But that program, which isn’t a research-driven lab school, is open only to UH students and staff. Antel said other families from the lab school probably will have to look elsewhere.

The remaining child care center also has a waiting list, and some faculty members complained that the wait might be even longer if lab school students get priority.

“Having quality day care is incredibly important in recruiting and retention,” said Seth Chandler, a member of the law center faculty whose three children attended the lab school. “It was a make or break issue for me.”

The closure will leave just one child development lab school in Houston. One run by Lone Star College closed in 2008.

As a community college, faculty and students don’t conduct research the way UH’s faculty and graduate students do, but the HCC lab school does use child development students trained in the latest teaching techniques, said child care manager Arthemise Foley.

Marsh and other parents haven’t quite given up on the UH lab school. They have a Web site, www.savehdls.org, and a petition to keep it open.

“We are very engaged and very motivated to do whatever we can,” Marsh said. “We understand there may be problems, but you’ve got a parent body that most schools would kill for.”